[gear] Need a advice on a good studio/practice amp.

I have a fender blues junior and love it.

I personally think the Orange Micro Darks are really cool, I wouldn't be concerned about all the used ones popping up around you. They take distortion beautifully, and they're very versatile for the size.

With restrictions of $1k, less than 50w, and only being played distorted, you might be best served by a used Mesa Boogie. I've got a Rectoverb 25 that has great onboard distortion, and there are several other offerings of theirs that you could probably find used for less than a thousand. I spend $625 for mine in mint condition.

Alternatively, check out Blackstar. They can be a bit controversial on here as some people don't like their sound, but I had an HT5R and loved it. There's several in their line that fit within your requirements.

I've recently moved to using a Jet City Custom 22 and love it. The green channel goes from clean(ish) to gritty blues. And the red channel is a smooth overdrive. I'm more a blues player so I tend to spend my time on the green setting but there is no question the red one is nice too. This video review is a very good representation of the sound.

It's a 100% valve amp (i.e. the EQ etc is also valve based - not just the pre-amp/power amp). And the price is nuts at just $320 for the head. It's quite compact. A bit bigger than an Orange Rocker 15 Terror I guess. About a third of the size of my DSL100 head.

You can order them direct from Jet City via their online store. Highly recommend them.

Get an old peavey classic 30... cheap, sounds good, and fits the bill.

BluGuitars Amp1 might be an alternative. Stompbox sized tube amp. There s pretty cool review (from youtuber EytschPi42) where the amps developer tries to emulate a bunch of amps the youtuber owns.

Ac4

The Vox handwired AC4 should do the trick. It does for me.

Blackstar HT-5

An amp that I don’t hear too many talk about is the orange rocker 32. It’s a 30 watt 2x10 amp with a stereo effects loop and comes in at $1,099.00.

You have your classics too like fender blues jr. and hot rod deluxe. A good choice from marshal would be the origin series. Egnater tweaker series is good as well.

Blackstar Series One 10watt tube 10th anniversary combo. Has a dual rec quality to it with the isf knob full on the American side. Very Marshall-y the other way. Of course you can fiddle all day.

Don't be turned off by it's lack of bass/mid/treble controls. I ended up throwing an eq in the effects loop, but it was fantastic even without it. More gain than you could ever use.

There's a good Anderton's YouTube video on it and sound clips on thomann.

Edit:~550 usd new

AC15. If you are moving it around for practice and stuff like that, get the combo. However if you’re going to leave it at home most of the time, get the AC15 head as it has a built in attenuator (0.1w, 1.5w, and full 15w options).

I play rhythm guitar in my band, mostly clean chorused tones through a stereo Ampeg GVT-15 setup...which is fantastic for bouncy funk cleans. However, I know that's not what you're looking for from your description.

I don't have enough experience with them to recommend them, other than watching youtube demo videos, but I've been itching to try one of these, gaudy blue lights and all...to scratch my high-gain itch.

https://reverb.com/p/hughes-and-kettner-tubemeister-36-head?adposition=1t1&devicemodel=&gclid=CjwKCAjwkrrbBRB9EiwAhlN8_M3uuYvrFsWZxAn4oSWbjZn_FjPTo4DP3AwtC77q5c7QMtNfNBl83xoCKjcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&keyword=&matchtype=b

Yamaha THR

Peavey 6505 MH is probably a decent option. Less than half you budget and leaves room for a good 2x12 cab.

Love my Marshall DSL-40C! Gain for days and the cleans are surprisingly nice.